(urth) Sundial with "multitudinous faces"?

[Jerry Friedman]

> From: James Wynn 
Gwern: > >> It occurred to me that the sundials probably date back to Urth's
> >> interstellar empire if not earlier. Maybe they tell times on different
> >> *worlds*.
Dan'l: > > I don't see how you could do that - a sundial is limited to a 24-hour
> > cycle (during about half of which it isn't showing anything).
> 
> I would think you could. Any regular tick-tock could analogize a time using a 
>different synch. It would be incredibly complex though since a day somewhere 
>else would be represented by more or less than a single cycle of the sun.

It would have to be magic.  Sundials don't have a regular tick-tock.

> However, doesn't Relativity eliminate the meaning of synchronous time for 
>locations separated by many lightyears?

There's no problem if they're not moving at relativistic speeds with respect to 
each other (contrary to occasional double-talk that Poul Anderson permitted 
himself).

So maybe not different worlds, but different whorls.  If a generation starship's 
day is the same length as Urth's, it's no problem.  Having a different face 
instead of a different scale of hours is showing off, but obviously people have 
done that.  (Thanks to all who linked to the interesting photos.)

> I'm not an expert on this but it seems I read something that implied that. For 
>example, traveling in a worm-hole (such the ones in the Stargate franchise) is 
>actually Time-travel as well.

If you can get from one place to another faster than light, as with a wormhole, 
then you *can* use that to travel faster than light.

Jerry Friedman